Directions: Underline the words in the story as you
find them,
unscramble them and write them in the boxes below. Thomas Alva Edison
was called Alva, or Al by his family. He was a very curious child. He
was always asking questions. The teacher told someone she thought there
was something wrong with Alva. He told his mother and they took him out
of the school. He only went to school for 3 months in his whole life.
Afterwards , he was taught at home.
He wanted to experiment. When he was 16 he went to work for the
telegraph office sending messages.
When he was 22 years old he went to New York.The owners gave him a job.
He improved their machine so much the company paid him $40,000 for his
invention. He started the American Telegraph Works in New Jersey.
He built a laboratory in Menlo Park, New Jersey. It was here with his
employees he made many of his inventions. He and his team worked to
make a light bulb which would burn for a long time without burning out.
They tried 1,500 materials and nothing worked well. Finally he tried a
new material in the filament that burned nearly 200 hours.
After he had made the light bulb, he worked to make a power system so
people could use the bulb.
Thomas Edison was probably the world's greatest inventor. He had a
patent on 1,093 inventions. In addition to the electric light, he also
invented the phonograph , a camera to take motion pictures, a cement
mixer, the automatic telegraph, and he improved Alexander Graham Bell's
telephone.